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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I've been playing for 30+ years. I still take lessons to keep my skills sharp, but I don't have a music degree and have never taken any pedagogy classes. I actually have 2 students right now. One is a beginner and the other is a "play-by-ear but can't really read music" type --- (I'm giving him things to sight-read so that he is forced to look at the notes).

Anyway . . . what I'm getting at is that I don't really feel qualified to teach because I haven't been taught HOW to teach. I do quite a bit of playing in my area - - - I'm an organist for our church, I accompany choirs, soloists, instrumentalist, and I occasionally perform in recitals . . . so people around here obviously know that I play and I get asked quite often if I teach. Right now I feel that 2 students is all I dare take on . . . if even that. If I had a little more confidence in my teaching abilities I would be more than willing to take on more students. How can I know?

I'm not a teacher myself, just a piano student. However for what its worth, you sound qualified to me. My piano teacher actually has a Bachelors in Social Work. Think it serves her well with her students. She seems to get the best out of them.

Round these parts (rural area) the public school system uses people with just 60 credit hours of college to substitute teach in pre k-12th grades-ALL the various subjects. Doesn't matter if they have any experience or not. ..you have 30 years experience as a pianist!

Based on your experience, I think you make a good teacher, there isn't course that really TEACHES you how to teach, teaching is something that you learn through interaction with so called students....really, because there isn't a text-book student.

Although, most people feel it's a little secure if they know that you have a degree, so you may want to consider getting some sort of artistry daploma or something that's in print so for those have a slightly different definination on 'teacher' can feel better.